Naruto, Konoha's edge
by blinth
Summary: The animosity of the villagers is like poison to young Naruto. he starts suppressing his Hyperactive attention-seeking side and gains some common sense. Stronger, but not godlike Naruto, Kekkei genkai, Naruhina, kenjutsu.
1. Chapter 1

I'm writing this with the assumption my readers are familiar with the story. So if you've never read/watched Naruto, I'm afraid you're better off with another story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

-Tenth of October – six years after the Kyuubi attack-

The third hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was watching the village of Konoha through the window of his office. Most of the villagers were outside, either celebrating the day the Kyuubi was defeated, or visiting the graveyard mourning the defenders of Konoha that fell during the kyuubi attack.

Hiruzen couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if the fourth hokage hadn't intervened. The villagers probably wouldn't be celebrating. Though whether that would be because it was remembered as the day Konoha lost most of its shinobi or because there was no Konoha that could celebrate was left to his imagination. He laughed mirthlessly at the irony of the situation. The villages using the tenth of October to both honor his sacrifice and unknowingly spitting on his grave at the same time. Because not only the fourth hokage is in the spotlight during the tenth of October. There's another person whose name is inextricably linked with the Kyuubi.

Hiruzen's thoughts strayed to Naruto, who had been keeping the kyuubi at bay these past six years. He wondered how he was doing, and whether the villagers weren't giving him too much trouble. The villagers were not exactly kind and friendly towards him. Despite the fact that he was saving all their asses from a painful fiery death. He knew Naruto was a tough kid, that the blonde could take most solid things civilians would throw at him. But Hiruzen also knew that, even though Naruto generally didn't outwardly show it, the glares, scowls and general signs of animosity didn't agree with the boy.

It was easy to tell Naruto lacked social skills. He didn't have much friendly human contact, and seeing he had no parents to teach him manners. . . . Suffice to say he often got on people's nerves. Either because of his exuberant behavior or because of his utter lack of respect, unless you counted the respect he seemed to have for ramen. He was frequently seen running through the streets of Konoha, shouting that he would become hokage at the top of his voice.

But the last few months, his behavior started to change. Hiruzen could tell because he had a convenient orb that showed him whatever he wanted to see in the village, including. . . . steamy. . . . well, let's not go there now. And he would also visit Ichiraku's each week with Naruto. He had this weekly appointment at the ramen stand to talk to him, and of course to let the blond devour as much ramen as he wanted. A year ago, Naruto smiled widely and frequently, and would claim at least once a week that Hiruzen's hat would be his by the end of the year. But a couple of months ago, he stopped being his exuberant self and became more secretive. He stopped drawing attention to himself in the streets and became more stoic.

Hiruzen never commented on his change in behavior, mainly because this "new Naruto" fitted the shinobi profile much better than the old one. But he had to admit to himself he missed the cheerful version Naruto seemed to have shed. Knowing the tenth of October was one of the more dangerous days for Naruto, he had been keeping an eye on the boy all day through his viewing orb. Ever since Naruto left the orphanage, some of the civilians decided to get some revenge on the boy known by the villagers as: "The demon", "that boy", "spawn of evil", "spawn", "troublemaker", "ramen vaccuum", "fox boy" or "him" for short. Though the shinobi patrols usually prevented any hostile actions towards the village jinchuriki, some attempts got too close for comfort.

There had been a close shave eight months ago, when one of the shinobi patrols noticed some drunk, aggressive villagers and decided to rile them up a bit and let them do his dirty work for him. he told them where Naruto lived, which Hiruzen had tried to keep under wraps for obvious reasons. And proceeded to sit back and watch the show. His plan would've worked if it hadn't been for ramen chef Teuchi, who just happened to pass though the street while the chunin patrol was convincing the drunk men that they should take revenge against "the demon". And Teuchi, drawing the right conclusion immediately went to the hokage's office and informed him of what he had overheard. Luck had been on their side that time.

Hiruzen could still barely hold his laughter remembering the faces of those villagers when they were banging on Naruto's door, trying to break it down, shouting threats at the occupants of the apartment through the door. And the hokage opening the door asking them what they were doing. The villagers were put in jail for two days for threatening and attempts at trespassing. And the chunin patrol was demoted to genin for putting the safety of Konoha civilians in jeopardy.

Though Hiruzen wanted to punish them more thoroughly, the fact was that Konoha still hadn't properly recovered from the Kyuubi attack, and beheading village ninja was generally not good for shinobi count of the village. Adding that to that the fact that it was difficult to prove the chuunin patrol had broke the law. And demotion was the best Hiruzen could achieve based on improper response to violence directed at a civilian. and being suspected of misuse of power would probably cause rebellion in the ranks.

Sighing to himself, Hiruzen strayed back to his desk and sat in front of it. He searched for the viewing orb and finally found it behind a heap of paper. As Hiruzen firmly held the orb in his hand, the orb showed a lot of white mist. As a girlish giggle could be heard from the background Hiruzen quickly wiped his nose and refocused it on the boy that had been occupying his thoughts for the last minute. Once it had focused properly, he saw that the boy was running laps on one of the more outlying training grounds. A wise decision in Hiruzen's opinion. It was probably best for the boy to avoid the crowded Town today. Releasing the orb, which turned an opaque white, Hiruzen was satisfied that Naruto was safe and not in potential danger. Relieved, he returned to performing his hokage duties. The paperwork unfortunately wouldn't sign itself unfortunately. 'A jutsu I should develop', he thought to himself as he started reading the next mission report.

A few miles away, the high-profile Jinchuriki known as Naruto Uzumaki leaned against a training dummy in exhaustion. He had just finished running several laps around the training ground. Naruto knew that he would be enrolling in the ninja academy soon and figured that it's never too early to start training. So he had been searching for unoccupied training grounds to see what he could do himself. He also knew that kids from big clans around Konoha had already started this kind of thing, and the blond couldn't bear the thought of being one step behind them.

Naruto really wanted to be a ninja of the village, because old man Sarutobi had told him that his parents had both been shinobi. He had often asked about his parents. The only thing the Hokage would tell him was that his parents had been shinobi of the village that died during the kyuubi attack, leaving Naruto to be raised at an orphanage. Naruto had never given his relation with the hokage much thought. True, most orphans weren't on regular speaking terms with the village leader, but Naruto just figured that he was because the hokage thought he, Naruto, would be a great future ninja.

Panting slightly from the laps he had ran, Naruto took a stance to start throwing punches at the training dummy he had leaned against. The last couple of months had brought about a radical change in Naruto. Where before, he craved attention and would do anything to get some. Now he knew that getting attention at the cost of his dignity and credibility could drive his ninja-career into the ground. That's why, slowly but surely, he had started suppressing urges that connected to the "old Naruto" and once his common sense wasn't clouded by his raging emotions, he found that he could think more clearly.

Though he wasn't able to completely torch his old self. The "old Naruto" would often make itself heard in his thoughts. Screaming the things at what he was really thinking, but suppressing. This "inner Naruto" was all that he had been trying to leave behind. It was only natural, a man can't simply chuck away all of his inner-feelings. But he was at least able to keep It in check. Nobody had probably noticed Naruto changing. If Naruto was honest with himself, he highly doubted anyone in the village would actually care about what the village jinchuriki was doing, except maybe old man Sarutobi and the owner of Ichiraku's and his daughter.

But the villagers got what they wanted, Naruto couldn't deal with the villagers mistreating him anymore. Which is why Naruto stopped trying to get their attention and started focusing on himself. All the love, affection and acceptance he desired, were stashed away in a far corner of his mind and he tried to forget about it. He also stopped moving though Konoha on the main streets, preferring alleys and other less-traversed paths to reach his destinations. And when he walked on the main streets, he made sure to stay in the building's shadows to avoid most people. 'It is also good training', he thought to himself, for when I become a ninja. Ninja are supposed to be stealthy and invisible after all.

After venting some of his energy and anger at the poor, innocent, manhandled training dummy, Naruto decided to call it a day and return to his apartment. Breathing heavily but being reasonably satisfied with the way his exercises went. Where before, he barely managed four rounds around the training area before collapsing in a heap, he now managed eight rounds and was still standing. Though he couldn't measure whether his punches were harder than before. It at least hurt less hitting the wooden training dummy than before. Which was bound to e be an improvement.

He wandered back towards town, where he could see more activity than usual in the evening. Upon reaching the inhabited areas of town, he quickly slipped in the less used alleys he knew would lead towards his apartment building. He was lucky he met no one on the way. He was sure people would be less than happy to see him, particularly on his birthday. He didn't know why, but his birthday always seemed to add extra intensity to the animosity of the villagers towards the blond. And knowing that it was his birthday today, he had stayed as far away as he could today. Waking up, remaining in his apartment until noon, and sneaked off towards one of the less visited training grounds, probably because it was located so far from town.

As Naruto prepared his evening meal his inner-personality shouted: **"Soon I'll join the academy and then they'll see that I'm the greatest here."**

'I probably won't even be top of the class' thought Naruto.' But the enthusiasm of his inner was quite contagious. And he couldn't help but be exited about the prospect of actually learning at the academy soon. Hiruzen told him that Konoha shinobi all carried something called "the will of fire" and were like family to eachother. Naruto couldn't wait to join this makeshift family and try to build a new life for himself. A life in which perhaps, he wouldn't be known as a troublemaker and where people actually tried to get to know him before judging him. And with that happy thought, he started on his bowl of ramen.

The days that followed, Naruto spent trying to trains himself a bit on that same training ground, and five days after his birthday, the blond was once again having ramen with his favorite old man in the village. Naruto was wearing his usual orange jumpsuit, and he waited eagerly at the Ichiraku stand, waiting for the old man to arrive.

"And how're you doing Naruto?" asked Ayame, the ramen stand owner's daughter. She always treated the blond as if he were her own brother.

"I'm doing fine nee-chan", replied Naruto excitedly. "I'll start at the academy soon, which means I'll be a ninja before you know it".

"I know squirt" laughed Ayame, "you haven't talked about anything else for the last three weeks".

They both were distracted when the flaps of the entrance parted, meaning that a customer had just entered the small ramen establishment.

"Welcome to Ichiraku's" said Ayame cheerfully to the newcomer.

"And a good evening to you" replied the hokage with a friendly smile, wearing his usual hokage attire.

"Old man!" cheered Naruto, his way of greeting the revered and venerable village leader. The hokage frowned a bit, though it didn't bother him in the slightest. He liked a bit of informality once in a while, but didn't want the other customers of the stand to think he was growing soft, so he had to intervene.

"Naruto!, what did I teach you about manners last week!" reprimanded the Hokage.

Well…don't eat with your elbows on the table, only continue eating once you've swallowed what you have in your mouth, don't talk with your mouth full…..

"Not that" sighed the village leader exasperatedly, "about the way you address your elders". "If you call your future sensei "old man" even once, I won't hold back on punishment".

"Oh that. . . ." chuckled Naruto, grinning sheepishly. Don't worry about it, I won't.

"That's good to hear" grinned the grizzled Hokage. "Now shall we order some of those ramen. . ." The hokage would never admit it to Naruto, but being called "hokage-sama made him feel older than being called "old man ".

Once they had both been provided with a bowl full of noodly goodness, the hokage started on the subject that had obsessed the young blond for the last month. "I've prepared the materials you'll need at the academy for you", spoke the hokage to the blond, who was eating the bowls of ramen with almost indecent enthusiasm. "You can pick them up from my office tomorrow".

"That's great old man, thanks", said Naruto though a mouthful of ramen".

"So.. what've you been up to these last few days". Asked the old hokage with a resigned look on his face at the manners the boy was displaying.

"Training of course", replied the blond, after swallowing a big mouthful. "I don't want to fall behind before the academy has even started".

"Very good" said the hokage to his surrogate son."You'll be attending the academy in two days, make sure you arrive at eight o'clock sharp and when you enter, ask for the classroom of Iruka Umnio, he'll be your teacher for the next couple of years". The hokage handed him a note with the time and place of his first lessons of becoming ninja. "I expect you to pay your full attention during lessons". Said the hokage to the blond, who was starting on his fourth bowl of ramen. "did you catch all that"?

"Yessir", shouted Naruto in mock-rigidness, a stray noodle hanging from his mouth. Saluting him with his hand.

"Excellent", said the hokage. "I'll be taking my leave now, but I expect you to come collect your study material at my desk tomorrow".

"Thanks old man" replied the young jinchuriki. And after paying for the ramen for the both of them the hokage left the ramen stand. Naruto quickly finished his last bowl and left too, exchanging a friendly word with Teuchi on his way out.

As soon as Naruto left the ramen stand. The smile that had adorned his face vanished, to be replaced by his usual indifferent face, though his insides were throwing a party

**"I'll be joining the academy and be ninja in no-time"** shouted inner-Naruto in his head. He couldn't hide a small smile at the words of his inner- personality. **"Now those village-mopheads will see with who they've been messing with"**.

Though doubting that the villagers would actually change their opinion on him, academy or not, he was still pretty stoked about joining the ranks of the ninja. He would soon follow in the footsteps of his late father and mother. That though gave him a shiver of excitement.

And indeed, two days later in the early morning, Naruto was walking towards the academy, located a good ten-minute walk from his apartment. Carrying the study material he'd received from the hokage with him. As always nowadays, Naruto was keeping to himself. And, though most of the civilians were still sleeping, avoided the more crowded streets of Konoha. Preferring smaller alleys to move around in town. Though his face didn't show it, he was extremely excited at finally starting his first lessons on becoming a ninja.

**"Time to kick some major butt."** Shouted is inner personality. **"By the end of this day everyone will know the name Naruto Uzumaki."**

No they won't, sighed Naruto in his mind. Though the enthusiasm of his inner personality was highly contagious and he continued walking with a spring in his step.

Upon reaching the academy, Naruto entered the building and asked the first person he saw for directions to the classroom of his new sensei.

"It is on the first floor" a boy with a black pudding bowl haircut replied. "On the far end of the hall to your left". "thanks" replied Naruto and he made his way to the classroom while his inner shouted **"Those eyebrows of his were frikkin' unreal."**

Upon entering the classroom he heard someone call out to him "just in time" and was immediately approached by a man wearing a hitai-ate and with a horizontal scar through the bridge of his nose.

"You must be one of the new students, my name is Iruka Umino and I will be your sensei.

Iruka seemed like a kind man and Naruto gave him a smile when he answered. Hi Iruka-sensei, my name is Naruto Uzumaki.

Naruto could've sworn he saw a flash of purest hatred when Naruto gave his name, but seconds later Iruka replied in a normal voice: "Well Naruto, you can sit wherever like"

Naruto started staring around the classroom, he saw a lot of kids he'd never seen before. He had of course seen some of them around the parks of the village, playing ninja while he was watching them, when he was younger. He recognized Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji and gave them a quick greeting.

**"Oh great, dogbreath, sleeping beauty and the muncher."** Muttered his inner. He was still happy to see them. Seeing familiar faces made him feel less nervous about it all.

As he slowly made his way up the stairs ( he wanted to sit in the back to draw less attention to himself and make sure nobody stared at him), he spotted some other kids. A kid with black hair that ended in spikes, and wide, cheerful looking eyes made eye contact with him, and gave him a small nod.

**"Maybe they're not all bad after all."** said his inner. Naruto returned it and as he let his gaze wander, saw a few girls sitting close to the black-haired boy sneaking peeks at him. Among them a pink-haired girl,

**"Well hello there"** said inner Naruto as his gaze fixed on the pink-haired one. **"she's beautiful"** muttered his inner. But as he saw her head turn he quickly turned his head to make sure she didn't see him stare at her.

His gaze landing on the blond sitting two seats away from the pink-haired too, was staring at the black-haired boy with glazed eyes. **("She probably wouldn't notice if I screamed in her ear.")**

He continued to let his gaze wonder through the room and it landed on a few boys sitting at the third row, they were staring at Naruto, and their scowls strongly reminded him of the villagers.

**"thanks for the friendly reception."** Muttered is inner sarcastically. Deciding he better avoid them he continued walking up the stairs.

His gaze now landed on a boy with a rather high collar and sunglasses that completely hid his eyes from view. **("I don't want to know what he's plotting under those sunglasses.")** Being a bit unnerved that he didn't know whether or not the boy noticed him staring at him, he quickly tore his gaze away from the boy to land on the blue- haired girl that was sitting on the left side of the last row.

He didn't know a lot about the village. But it was common knowledge that all members of the Hyuga clan had pale white, featureless eyes. The girl had her head down and was poking her two pointer fingers together in a nervous habit.

**"Strange, why isn't she sitting with the rest."** thought his inner. But not overly curious about her reasons. He took a place on the right side of the last row.

Welcome to all of you, as you know by now, my name is Iruka Umino and I will be your sensei. Also meet Mizuki, he pointed at a man with a bandana and long purple-like hair that hung around his head. Now that everyone is sitting comfortably, let's start by introducing ourselves. The entire class proceeded to introduce themselves one by one.

"I'm Kiba Inuzuka, and this is my partner Akamaru, right buddy", *Bark* was the only response from the white puppy. Though Naruto knew Kiba, his puppy partner seemed to be a recent addition to his persona. All the girls fawned over Akamaru and Iruka had to shout to make himself heard over the commotion.

"All right that's enough, next."

The spiky black haired boy introduced himself as Sasuke Uchiha. **("An Uchiha, they range from pricks to super-mega pricks.")** Thought inner Naruto, being familiar with the family known for their dojutsu, the sharingan. Though he had to admit the black haired boy didn't seem all that bad towards Naruto. That and making up his mind about someone before he even met them would be a bit Hypocritical. Seeing as it was the first thing he wanted to teach the villagers once he was hokage.

Sasuke was followed by the pink-haired girl who introduced herself as Sakura Haruno (**"Wow, even her name is beautiful."**) thought his inner. Though his outer didn't show any sign the girl was anyone out of the ordinary for him. Followed by the blonde-haired girl Ino yamanaka. The guy with the sunglasses was Shino Aburame. And the blue-haired girl was called Hinata, and was indeed a Hyuga as Naruto had guessed. Her voice was so quiet and shook so badly while she spoke, she had to repeat her name several times before everyone caught it.

Then it was his turn. Slightly nervous about their reaction, he spoke: My name is Naruto Uzumaki. It was as good as he could've hoped. It didn't have a huge impact on the class, some of the boys he had seen earlier seemed confirmed in their suspicion But he wasn't planning to tangle with them anyway. He also thought he saw Mizuki-sensei's eyes narrow. But he wasn't sure. The rest seemed unconcerned about his name. The civilian boys were once again scowling at him. But because Naruto decided to sit in the back, they couldn't keep it up when Iruka-sensei continued speaking and had to turn their heads back to the front of the classroom or risk missing parts of his explanation about what he was going to teach them this year.

Iruka explained that the first year they would be learning about the village's history, basic taijutsu stances and learn to feel and control their chakra to some degree.

"What is chakra?" Asked one of the students.

"Don't worry", replied Iruka-sensei. Those are the kind of questions we're going to teach you the answer to this year.

The Lesson started with an explanation about how the village was formed, something about a the first hokage and an Uchiha ( Sasuke looked immensely proud at this point), creating the village, and the first hokage creating the abundant trees that surrounded Konoha. By this time, Naruto already had trouble paying attention. He couldn't help it, he found it so hopelessly dull. Wasn't being ninja about fighting others, protecting the village, spewing giant fireballs from your mouth, creating giant explosions with a snap of your fingers, and some more fireballs.

His inner shouted: **"Ask Iruka to skip to the more interesting parts, like how do cool ninja tricks"**. But he knew perfectly well that that wasn't going to happen for a couple of years, so he muttered 'Shut up' in his mind. And the rest of the lesson proceeded normally.

The history lesson was followed by a running exercise outside on the academy grounds. Naruto, who of course had been trying to practice running before his enrollment in the academy, was among the better in the class, beating most of the guys.** ("Haha, take that sucka's, hokage hat here I come.")** , only letting four finish before him, among them were Sasuke, Kiba and two guys he had already forgotten the name of. But all in all, he wasn't dissatisfied. Some students like Shikamaru weren't even trying and Choji simply didn't have a body made for speed.

The running exercise was followed by an accuracy exercise. Naruto took the shuriken and Kunai the hokage had prepared for him, and awaited his turn to try and hit the targets. He had never attempted this before, but based on Iruka-sensei's explanation about the correct way of throwing them, it couldn't be too hard. He was also getting more excited because this was the stuff that Naruto associated with being a ninja. Not some lame history lessons about the village. Most students didn't do well, only Sasuke, managed to hit the stationary target multiple times, receiving squeals of delight and admiration from most girls watching him.

"Naruto, you're next" shouted Mizuki-sensei over the heads of the students, Mizuki was holding a list of what presumably were names in his hand. Naruto maneuvered himself in the correct position before Taking a great calming breath and started flinging the shuriken in the way Iruka had shown them. The results were relatively awful and if the rest didn't perform as badly as he did, people would probably have laughed. Only one of the shuriken managed to hit the pole it was aimed at, and it didn't even hit within the circles where points were awarded depending on how close to the center. Ergo, it would've been zero points for him if it had been an exam. Though he wasn't bothered by it. **("Aaaaaugh, that was embarrassing, come on, I can do better than that, give me another try, now now NOW.")**

After that first attempt the accuracy test was changed slightly, instead of throwing shuriken and kunai, they were given rubber balls. Divided in pairs of two and one standing behind a line had to hit the other, who had a certain area in which it was allowed to dodge. Its purpose to train both aim and dodging. Naruto was glad he wasn't paired with the Uchiha or he would probably be hit a couple of times. **("Go with that showoff Sasuke and show him who's the best ninja.")**

Though being hit didn't injure, it was still sufficiently painful that you wanted to avoid it. Instead Naruto was paired with Kiba and they went at it. Kiba was faster than him, but Naruto's slightly better dodging instinct saved him a lot of sore spots. All in all they were about equal to eachother **("haha, I totally showed fangman who's boss")**

After those exercises they were shown a taijutsu move **("why can't I just bash their face?")** and were instructed to practice it and attempt to use it in the short spars that followed. Naruto saw that once again Sasuke was way ahead of the rest.

'He probably had a lot of training from his clan already'. Thought Naruto jealously, both at his ( in Naruto's perception) flawless moves and that Sasuke probably got a lot of help on his training.

**"Let me have a crack at him, I'll show him."** shouted inner-Naruto with his fist balled.

Naruto's spar was unremarkable, he was paired with a nameless faceless guy that showed about the same level of technique Naruto had, but didn't have his endurance and determination, ending in a victory for Naruto **("did she watch, did she watch, she must find me amazing if she thought Sasuke's battle was so great.")**

After the taijutsu spars, they were given the basics of ninjutsu. Naruto learned that chakra was at the basis of all ninjutsu. And that chakra was a form of energy the body could create by "molding" it, which was essentially throwing spiritual energy together with physical energy, Naruto couldn't follow it all, but he at least tried to because the way it sounded, ninjutsu was at the basis of creating giant fireballs, and earthquakes.

**"Soon you shall all tremble before me."** But before inner Naruto's fantasy could expand any further, the lessons of the day were over.

Remaining in his seat for another five minutes after Iruka dismissed them all, to make sure he wasn't caught in the crowds of students moving towards the exit, he eventually also slowly stood up and started moving. He was reviewing the day's work and how satisfied he was with it. He calmly made his way to the exit of the classroom with his sensei was still in the room.

He locked eyes again with Iruka, and though the boy couldn't understand it, his saw again that flash of hatred in his face. Iruka hadn't treated him bad today, he had in fact treated him much better than most civilians did.

So Naruto decided to break the nasty silence that had developed between them and said "thanks for today's lesson Iruka sensei."

**"You slimeball."** Said inner Naruto, referring to what Naruto had said.

The face that had displayed hatred now showed confusion. "No problem", Iruka said, slightly nonplused, as if he just saw a tiger hugging a sheep.

"Well. . . I'll be leaving then." Said Naruto, trying to break the now awkward silence that had developed. And hearing no response strayed from the room.

Upon reaching the exit of the academy building, he quickly made his way to the nearby trees, to avoid being spotted by parents who came to pick up their children. After hiding himself in the bushes properly he started watching the parents greet their children as they walked out of the building. He felt a pang of jealousy as he saw mothers hugging their sons and tried to imagine what it would feel like to have someone that cared so much about you.

After watching those kind of scenes in front of the academy for a couple more minutes he had seen enough to suffer from emotional overload and slowly walked through the trees in the direction of the training grounds.

They had been given a small homework assignment to try and read up on what kinds of uses chakra had. And Naruto was just planning to use the prescribed books to try and find the answer to it, but he wasn't planning to put much time in it. He had to continue his physical training after all, and now more than ever since he had an extra focus. Having to train his accuracy with throwing weapons.

As he was absorbed in his own thoughts it took some time to notice the voices of three boys that slowly rose in intensit.

"Apologize! now!" he heard one of them shout.

"Yeah." He heard another "Don't expect us to respect you just because you're a member of a clan." Shouted another.

Naruto froze at the sound of the guys, he quickly glanced around. First at where he thought he heard them from and then all around him, thinking they were talking to him. But it soon dawned on Naruto they weren't talking to him since he didn't have a clan. And seeing as nobody was looking at him he felt himself calm down a bit.

Deciding on the spot he decided to find out who the voices belonged to.

Still wondering about the advisability of walking towards what sounded like the beginning of a scuffle, he crept forward in the direction where he thought he had head the voices.

"You know what boys." Grumbled a third voice. "I think we should teach her a lesson in manners." When Naruto was finally close enough to see what was happening, he saw a girl he recognized as one of his classmates, the blue haired Hyuga girl, on her hands and knees surrounded by three older, rather brawny looking boys.

"You know,", said one of the boys as he grabbed the girl by her hair, "When you knock into someone you should apologize." he spat at her. The girl was looking at the floor, crying silent tears.

"Are you that arrogant that you think that we aren't worth your notice." Asked one of the other boys menacingly.

N-n-no of c-course n-not. Whimpered the girl, her teardrops falling on the forest floor.

"I didn't hear you." Growled the boy. Who also seemed the biggest and brawniest of the bunch. And he lifter her off the ground holding onto her collar.

For the first time Naruto got a good look of her face. Her eyes were forced shut, slightly red from the tears cascading down her cheeks. And the emotion on her face could only be described as utter panic.

**"Three against one, those cowards, I'll show them. I'll rearrange their faces, right here right now!"**

Though Naruto could understand the sentiments of his inner, he still didn't think that charging in and starting to wail on them would have a happy ending. Instead, he created a simple plan in his mind that would hopefully buy the girl, who he now remembered was called Hinata, some time to escape them. He wasn't exactly happy at the prospect of creating three enemies, who looked like they all packed a heavy punch, on his first day. But he wouldn't stand and watch while they were ganging up on a single younger person, reducing them to tears. That was just plain mean.

Deciding it was to reveal himself, Naruto called out to them "hey you, stop that you cowards."

"What did you call us?" Growled the one holding Hinata in menacing tone. Still half- strangling her.

"Wait, I know who he is." Shouted the second one. "My parents told me to stay away from him. That he's bad news."

"Let's show him how happy we are to see him". Said the third." rubbing his knuckles of his right hand with his left. "we're gonna have a lot of fun with you."

But before either of the three could start their assault at their new victim, Naruto quickly locked gazes with Hinata, who was staring at him with wide eyes, before giving her a "get out of here now" look, then charged at the three, kicked one of them in the shins, received a blow to his shoulder in return from one of the three, then proceeded to run away, as fast as he could, in the direction he came from. The boys, one of them limping slightly, immediately started chasing him. Dropping Hinata and leaving her abandoned at the spot.

Still wide-eyed, disoriented and clutching her neck slightly. Hinata wondering what had just happened. Where had she seen that boy and why the boy decided to help her of all people.

"Great plan Naruto", grumbled Naruto to himself. 'You wanted to remain under the radar, you wanted to just be another face in the crowd, but nooo, you just had to kick one of the three meanest looking bullies in the shins'. He continued running and ranting at himself while Rubbing his shoulder where he was hit.

As he was being chased by the three livid boys, he heard shouts like "I'll tear you apart" "you're dead" and "blood, bloooooood". Naruto, deciding to spare his breath, didn't reply and just continued to run towards the academy, they wouldn't dare to pulverize his skull in front of a teacher he hoped.

Once the academy was in sight, he saw Mizuki standing near the entrance. Thinking 'perfect' Naruto proceeded to run towards the entrance and leaned against the wall next to the entrance in plain view of Mizuki. Breathing heavily, he watched and tried to look innocent, calm and uncaring as the three bullies also arrived.

Mizuki, who was not retarded, and knew exactly what the three boys had been planning turned his back on the group, then suddenly jumped on the roof of the academy and stepped through a window.

**"Aaargh, what is he doing. I'm screwed."** Shouted his inner in his mind.

"great job Naruto" groaned Naruto, as he was being surrounded by the three, who were grinning maniacally and cracking their knuckles.

'Note to self,' thought Naruto, as the bullies started beating the snot out of him. 'never trust Mizuki-teme."

"Reveeeeenge." Chanted inner-Naruto.

~~o~~o~~

A/N: jan 20th , 2012

Hi there, this is blinth with my first post on this website *cue an audience clapping and cheering hysterically*. Needless to say, I have never received reviews before. So this is basically my first attempt at entertaining people through a story. Which means my style is probably amateurish and rough around the edges.

My biggest concern is that, as English is not my primary language, the sentences might be a bit stiff and there probably will be a lot of incorrect word use. But I'd need someone who does speak the language at a daily basis to point it out to me.

I certainly don't mind improvements being suggested through reviews, so fire away. "note: improvements, not rants about my crappy storyline and ignorance concerning the English language.

I've used the first chapter to outline the Naruto character I'll be using. A Naruto who has been emotionally hurt in the past, couldn't deal with it too well and starts suppressing his loud, attention – seeking nature to become a man who still wants to be hokage and still has a lot of determination, but doesn't want to share it with the whole village. Who wants to stay under the radar to avoid bad treatment, but is still willing to stick his neck out to help people and who cares deeply for his friends. Note that, like friends sometimes he agrees with his inner-personality and sometimes he tries to block it out because it gives him crappy advice.

I'll be using the overused NaruHina paring, simply because I think they're adorable and the pairing makes me feel fuzzy inside. I've already laid the foundation in this chapter for Hinata's admiration. I won't be making this an M rated fic, simply because I have no experience whatsoever in the mature genre. I did make it teen – rated so that I wouldn't be restricted by language.

I've already thought out two plot twists, one of them of course being the kekkei genkai I mentioned in the summary. If my posts are late, it's because the university has priority. Next time I'll make the author's notes shorter but I wanted to write a proper introduction.

See you next time,


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Naruto was barely conscious by the time the bullies were done. His body was covered with bruises and small scratches. With a final kick to the knees they left the scene, thinking he was unconscious. The blond, who had stopped moving in the hope they'd think he was K.O, strained his ears to check whether they'd really gone. Satisfied that he was finally left alone, he tried moving his limbs.

'I'm gonna go ahead and file this in the "failed plans" category. Well, I suppose the girl did get away.' He thought to himself as we was trying to get on his feet. He felt his knees wobbling trying to support his weight. His vision was hazy, his head throbbed and his body ached all over from the beating it'd received at the hands of the bullies and, indirectly, Mizuki-sensei.

'Oh well, better to find out Mizuki-sensei hates me this way, than being stabbed by a kunai when I have my back to him.' He thought to himself as he limped towards his apartment. 'I think it's better to not trust that particular Sensei for the time being.'

"**That sneaky, dirty, disgusting, foul, ugly. . . I'll kill him and then punch him in his stupid face." **Inner Naruto continued to rant.

'This also puts a damper on the whole "training" plan.' He thought as he reached the front door of his apartment. Naruto opened the door and quickly locked it behind him, then dragged himself across the apartment and collapsed on his bed. It wasn't exactly late but he felt drained from the afternoon's "activity" for lack of a better word.

As he laid motionless on his bed, he went over his last plan once more. And as he thought about it, he realized that his plan had included one factor that had never been reliable in his life. In fact now that he thought about it, he realized how foolish he had been to rely on it now. That factor being that people would not want to see him get hurt.

It's a sad truth, but one he'd been facing all his life now. He wasn't sure what made him think things had changed. He supposed it must've been the good day he'd experienced at the academy. He thought he was treated like the rest, that he was equal to other academy students, but it was, both literally and figuratively, painfully obvious that it was not the case. He was still the village pariah.

After laying motionless on his bed for a couple more minutes, thinking of a few particularly gruesome deaths of Mizuki-sensei, he got himself off his bed and started preparing some instant ramen. As he waited for the ramen to reach the correct temperature, his thoughts shifted to the blue-haired girl he had helped escape, the beating probably messed up his thought process because he could once again not remember her name. But whatever her name was, he hoped she had made it out alright.

He knew she probably didn't do anything wrong, those guys were just assholes looking for someone to torment. He, Naruto, knew enough about bullies to understand they didn't need a reason to start ganging up on people. And since Naruto had thought he could probably lose them by hanging around an academy teacher, he still thought he had made the right decision in helping her. Even though standing up to bullies interfered with his "keep your head down and don't give them any reason to hate you" plan.

As he started on his ramen he thought about the academy the next morning. Now I have to find a way to avoid those three, he thought. He wasn't eager to be manhandled every day during break. Naruto couldn't know it yet, in the coming weeks, the answer to that problem would fall in his lap.

The next day at the academy Naruto spotted the blue haired girl he had helped yesterday. She was once again sitting in the upper- left corner of the classroom. Naruto was trying to get her attention, but once she noticed he had entered the classroom she stared intently back at her desk, trying to avoid his gaze.

Deciding that, despite his self- appointed rule not to meddle in other person's lives, he wanted to know whether she got home alright. So he made his way to her desk and asked her. "Hey, are you alright. I hope you got away alright yesterday."

"Y-yes th-thank you." She stuttered. She was resolutely looking the other way.

Naruto, who waited a couple more seconds for her to say anything more, eventually decided to just take her gratitude and turned around to walk to his seat.

"**And thank you for your concern about me. Whether I came out in one piece" **Muttered his inner sarcastically. His chest was still a bit tender from yesterday.

Though Naruto agreed with his inner that it would have been nice if she had asked him whether he got out himself, he also berated himself for expecting such things. ´The world is unforgiving.´ He told himself. ´And the ninja world even more so. So if I want to be a great ninja, stop expecting people to treat me nicely.´

Naruto knew he shouldn't expect people to actually care about him, but that didn't stop him from hoping it. He had helped the girl yesterday, so hoping she´d start considering him as a good person was logical. But from the way she was acting, it was obvious she didn´t want anything to do with him.

"W-wait.." Hinata whispered. But Naruto was already too far away to hear, he had taken the place at the other side of the classroom. Hinata was silently cursing herself for being unable to utter more words than "thank you". She really wanted to talk to the blond boy, but naturally, her shyness had made sure that she would come over as a complete freak.

She didn't have more time to think about it, because Iruka entered the classroom and started talking to the class.

During break, Naruto was sitting alone, enjoying the silence. Ever since Naruto came to live alone, Naruto liked the silence. Not to be misunderstood, he also liked connecting to people and talking to them, but being left to his own devices suited him fine too. But it seemed Naruto would not spend the entire break alone when Hinata made her way to Naruto's spot underneath a tree.

"N-Naruto." Mumbled Hinata, her face averted. She was shaking slightly and her voice held about as much power as a sponge.

"Hinata?" said Naruto surprised, he had just been dozing in the shadow of the tree when he heard her whisper his name. Slightly curious why she would approach him, he turned to face her.

Naruto could see Hinata was a bit uncomfortable, primarily because of the way she refused to make eye- contact. Naruto also spotted her face, which was a rich red color and the fact that she seemed to be shaking slightly also showed how apprehensive she was.

The blond didn't need to wonder why the girl was so apprehensive, she was in the presence of "the village demon" after all, but he did wonder why she approached him. It probably had to do with the incident yesterday, but what could she say about it now that she couldn't say earlier in the classroom?

Hinata felt the courage she had been building up the previous five minutes drain away at the sight of the blond staring at her questioningly. She wasn't afraid he might do something to her, the fact he helped her yesterday proved that that was not his game, but she had constantly been thinking about the blond ever since the incident happened yesterday. And actually talking to him made her very nervous.

"C-can I sit down please?" Asked Hinata shyly.

"Help yourself." Answered Naruto kindly, patting the bare grass at his side in a gesture that she was welcome to sit down. Naruto in the meantime, was confused. 'Why does she want to sit with me?' He wondered. Especially because the blue- haired girl had shown every sign of being extremely nervous. Which could, of course, only be explained by fear for him.

"Naruto heard hinata walk towards him and sit down on the forest floor. Naruto was surprised she actually followed through. Most people hated him after all. Even though he might have helped her yesterday. Naruto didn't do it to gain her trust and become her friend, although those would be pleasurable consequences. He simply did it because it was the right thing to do.

Neither of them spoke. Naruto had the impression that the girl was trying to steady her breathing because, despite the relaxing surroundings and peaceful nature of the far edge of the academy grounds, the girl was anything but relaxed.

After a couple of minutes however, Hinata seemed to have found her composure and asked: "W-why did you help me y-yesterday?"

"Because you looked like needed some help." Replied Naruto simply, without turning his head to look at her. "Weren't you cornered by aggressive boneheads preparing to beat the crap out of you?"

Hinata didn't answer, which was not a problem because Naruto wasn't expecting one. She was looking at the blond boy in admiration. She had assumed he would answer that he helped her because she was obviously from the Hyuga clan. One of the most influential clans of Konoha. But it was obvious to her that that had nothing to do with it. Which meant he would've helped anyone.

Most people would've fled, but this boy decided to stand up to three boys older and stronger than himself just to help someone who was a complete stranger to him. And that was something Hinata admired greatly. It showed he was a kind sprit with his heart in the right place. And Hinata blushed a bit when she thought about how he had stood up to them and that he had done it for her, for her, Hinata Hyuga.

"C-can I ask you a favor?" Asked Hinata." A lot calmer because of the kind reception of the blonde.

"Sure, I can't promise I can actually grant it though." Replied Naruto, now turning around to face her."

"Well.." Began Hinata, but as soon as her eyes found Naruto's blue ones, the words died in her throat. She just couldn´t avert her eyes form the ones in front of her, so blue, so full of determination and kindness. She attempted to talk several more times, but was unable to utter anything coherent.

"Well what?" Asked Naruto. Not realizing the reason Hinata broke off her sentence. He saw her turn a shade of red previously undiscovered and wondered what had gotten into her. He was by no means dumb, but on a social level, he woefully lacked experience.

Noticing that she didn't seem able to pronounce words coherently and that she hadn't moved a muscle, looking like a pale eyed statue, Naruto decided to help her out a little. "Ok Hinata, you said you wanted to ask me a favor, what is the favor you want to ask of me." Asked Naruto, trying to snap her out of whatever was happening to her.

"**What is it with her, one moment she acts normal and the next . . . ."**

Hinata, whose brain finally started to initialize again shook her head experimentally before finally snapping out of it said "sorry, I-I-I got lost in thoughts for a minute there."

"No prob." Replied Naruto. "But what was it you wanted to ask me?"

"C-could you please not repeat to anyone what happened yesterday?" asked Hinata in a pleading tone. A slight panic visible in her eyes, barely visible because she was once again avoiding to look Naruto directly in the face.

"Sure." Replied Naruto, slightly nonplused. "But why? I mean I understand it's nothing to be proud of, but why so insistent."

"My father, I-I don't want him to know I. . ." Hinata trailed off with a look of panic and flushed cheeks.

Naruto, who didn't know all that much about reading people didn't recognize the flushed cheeks as shame. He was familiar with panic, it was a look that had shown more than once in the past, wide eyes and slightly unstable breathing. But shame was a concept Naruto didn't understand yet.

"Don't worry." Replied Naruto, placing a hand on her shoulder to calm her down and comfort her. "I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to"

"**Not that there's anyone that would actually be interested in hearing what I have to say apart from Hokage-jiji."** Thought inner.

"But why are you so protective of them?" asked Naruto with a serious look on his face. "I mean. . I can understand you don't want to get people into trouble. . . But those guys from yesterday wouldn't hesitate to hit you. Why shield them?

Hinata stared at Naruto with a confused expression for a couple of seconds, but quickly realized Naruto's mistake in thought process in what he must be thinking she was trying to achieve.

"I don't want to protect those bullies." Replied Hinata, her eyes watering slightly.

"Then why keep this to yourself?" Asked Naruto, getting more confused by the second.

"I don't want my father to find out because of ME ok." muttered Hinata, who couldn't hold back tears anymore."

"Because of you. . . Repeated Naruto confused" Now panicked himself because of Hinata's extreme emotional reaction. "You couldn't do anything about them targeting you. It was just bad luck you were at the wrong place at the wrong time. Or shouldn't you have been near the academy?" asked Naruto squeezing her shoulder with the hand that was still placed there in a comforting way.

"N-No" replied Hinata. "He must never find out they beat me up." muttered Hinata. Wondering why he still didn't understand it.

"why?" asked Naruto. "those guys were twice as large as you and much older" replied Naruto. He couldn't have expected you to win in a three on one against older students.

Hinata remained quiet, trying to gain control of her emotions. 'Ninja's are able to keep their emotions in check, father always said.' She didn't want to see her father's disapproving stare, and his words of disappointment. And against civilians to boot. She would be lucky if he didn't punish her for getting beat up by clanless students.

Naruto's expression remained confused until the conclusion of their discussion dawned on him. His face turned from confused to surprised and disgusted, and he was at a loss for what to say for a second.

'I always thought family had to be supportive and kind towards other members.' Thought Naruto as he contemplated the behavior of her father. 'How could he do something like that to his daughter, what had he done in the past to make her so sure he would react like that.'

Naruto felt like he was about to be sick. "What the hell is wrong with him!" Shouted Naruto. That- That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I. .I. . . Naruto's voice trailed off. Thinking how she must feel about it all. That's just mean.

Hinata, who had regained her composure, leaned back against tree again and remained quiet.

The pair didn't speak for the rest of the break. They didn't need words to understand each other. By the time the break was over, Naruto felt like an understanding had sprung between the two. "Well, I won't tell anyone, don't worry." He said to Hinata as they made their way back to the main building.

"**Wow. . . I never thought a family would do that to each other. " **said his inner. **"I promise I will help you, and I never break my promises."**

A week after that rather depressing talk during the break. Naruto sat down for the afternoon lessons. Nothing particularly noticeable happened last week, unless you counted Naruto hitting his first target at target practice.

Though he spent his breaks the last week with Hinata, they didn't really speak to each other. Which was fine by him. He liked some company during breaks and felt like she needed that too, so that is why he always sat with Hinata during lunch, sitting lazily with the back against a tree trunk and watching her eating her lunch. Without using words showing her that she was appreciated and not just shunned by the people around her.

Despite how Naruto was trying to help her. Hinata was still behaving the same way, though since their conversation, she seemed to avoid looking at him even more. Naruto wasn't the kind of guy to just force conversation. He had also learned from Shikamaru that some people just didn't appreciate being bothered while sitting quietly.

Speaking of Shikamaru, Naruto really started to respect the guy. When he was younger Shikamaru always called him troublesome blond. Especially when Naruto was on a shouting spree to let everyone know that he was gonna be hokage someday. Naruto thought that Shikamaru called him troublesome because Shikamaru was like the rest of the villagers. But the Nara confessed to him that he just found Naruto's shouting extremely annoying and had nothing more against him.

Shikamaru had approached Naruto four days after their first at the academy. The Nara had always been more attentive than others, and he could hardly have missed the change that seemed to have befallen Naruto. But he dind't comment on it. They just talked about the academy, and then Shikamaru told Naruto about how annoying he found shouting.

Though he wouldn't call what he had with Shikamaru a close friendship. They seemed to share goals in trying to appear as bland as possible. Though for different reasons. Shikamaru told him his goal in life was to become an average ninja, find an average wife, get two children and live an average life. He didn't need to ask what Naruto's dream was, seeing as he had heard him shout it often enough.

So that's how Naruto had developed over the last week. They had finally started accessing their chakra. Something the entire class had been looking forward to. Some of the clan members had already accessed their chakra and learned minor jutsu's.

Choji had a lot of success displaying a secret family jutsu: "chips shuriken" he shouted out as he finished two hand seals, and the chips in the bag he was holding rose in the air and flew at the target.

no damage could done though, admittedly it was more of a party jutsu, in which you aim chips in the mouth of your comrads, than a useful one.

Naruto had an easy time accessing his chakra. He wondered why he had much less problems accessing his chakra than some of the other students.

He had asked Iruka- sensei, and Iruka had explained that those of shinobi parentage generally had more chakra than those of civilian parentage and that the more chakra you had, the easier it was to sense it in your body, which sounded logical.

Naruto knew his parents had died during the kyuubi attack and that they had been shinobi, so he figured that's why he had more chakra than civilians, and an easier time accessing it.

Though they had learned to access their chakra, they still hadn't learned anything they could do with chakra, aside from trying to stick a leaf to their forehead. But today that would all change.

"We will be studying the henge today" announced Iruka to a loud cheer of the majority of the class. They had all been anxious to learn their first jutsu and today they would finally get their chance.

Naruto was also excited, Iruka had explained about henges two days ago, and Naruto thought it would be a godsend to him. he could easily pass though the village while appearing to be someone else.

He might even be able to eat something else than ramen. Seeing as that was the only food they didn't refuse to sell him. let there be no misunderstanding, he loved ramen, but a lesson in keeping your body fit had informed Naruto about the importance of a more varied diet.

Iruka showed how they were supposed to create a thin layer of chakra over their entire body to fool the senses and make it appear to be something else they were looking at.

After the demonstration they were all given a mirror and the assignment to try and henge into Iruka.

Iruka wouldn't admit it to anyone but he always felt incredibly weird standing in a classroom filled with misshapen deformed versions of himself. He felt like he was at a fair staring at funhouse mirrors, the ones that make your appearance distort. 'This world can be such a freakshow sometimes.' Thought Iruka.

Iruka walked between the poorly constructed Irukas, some with heads twice the normal size, some with abnormally large eyes or ears. With bulging bellies and puffed up lips. Feet twice the normal size or without necks or ears. He even spotted one that had a weird pointy mustache. How that had happened Iruka didn't even want to guess.

Naruto in the meantime was trying it instead. His first attempt had been an embarrassment. The thin veil of chakra immediately imploded upon itself. Naruto wasn't sure what had happened, but he guessed he hadn't used enough chakra. Iruka-sensei had explained beforehand that the henge didn't take a lot of chakra, but that those who succeeded in sticking their leaf to their forehead, would probably fail the first few times by underestimating the amount they had to pump into the henge.

So Naruto, who had to practice four days to nail the leaf- sticking excersise, tried again, this time really opening the gates to flood the jutsu with chakra. He made the describe handsigns and shouted 'henge' in his mind ( many of the others shouted their jutsu's out loud, but Naruto didn't want people to stare at him).

And to his utter amazement, he felt like the chakra was compressing his body and actually sticking to it. Naruto checked his appearance in the provided mirror and noticed that he had not spread his chakra evenly enough, resulting in weirdly engorged cheeks and nose and a scar that stretched from ear to ear, making it look like his face was devided in two. So Naruto cancelled his henge and gave it another go.

It took him the entire lesson, but in the end he could make a passable henge of anyone in existence and more. Naruto was elated. It meant that after class, he could just try henge into a nonexistent person and walk the streets instead of skulking though alleys, trees and woods. This was exactly the sort of solution he was looking for.

At the end of the classes, Naruto waited for the room to empty as usual before bidding Iruka-sensei goodbye and slowly made his way outside. As he approached the doors outside, he looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to him. unfortunately some of the parents were glaring at him from outside. So he quickly proceeded until they were out of eyesight. Then he made the seal and henged into a non-existent grey- haired kid. He noticed that he had done a pretty good job, and leaned his new arms against the tree he hid behind.

W-wait, new arms. 'What the hell is going on.' Thought Naruto. 'I thought the henge was just supposed to make you look like something else, not actually become something else.' Wondering why his physical attributes had changed, Naruto concluded that he must have misunderstood when Iruka-sensei explained the jutsu. The jutsu seemed to give him another appearance anyway and that was the effect he was going for, so he wasn't bothered.

Deciding to put it to the test, Naruto made his way out of the clump of trees he had used to hide himself, and acting as natural as possible, walked over one of the main streets of Konoha. It worked like a charm. Better than Naruto could've hoped.

Nobody was paying attention to him. he was just a face in the crowd, exactly the effect he was going for. Almost laughing openly at the amount of freedom he gained with such a simple jutsu he started checking out anything that caught his attention.

He visited several merchant stalls and shops. He bought himself some food from one of the stalls, loving the fact that people were behaving normally towards him. after an hour of just looking around and enjoying his newfound freedom, Naruto made his way back to his apartment, thinking that things were definitely looking up.

As Naruto made his way back to his apartment after the next day after the academy. his eyes drifted over a shop entitled "the smooth shuriken". The banner showed three shuriken and a kunai, it was obviously a store with shinobi supplies.

Naruto had never actually visited an all- shinobi shop, and he was definitely curious what sort of wares they would have for sale. Naruto quickly checked whether the henge covered him properly. he had the body of a boy that looked around the age of fifteen with messy purple hair that stood in all directions and with an abnormally long and pointy nose, though that was because Naruto messed up the henge a little.

Still satisfied he could pass as a random person, he stepped forward towards the entrance of the store and stepped inside. There were no other customers inside. Naruto had hoped there would be some others customers to make sure people wouldn't pay attention to him and he could blend in better, but oh well… you can't have everything going your way.

"Welcome to the smooth shuriken, are you looking for anything particular?" asked the shopkeeper, a bearded bloke much taller than Naruto and towering over his henge, which was of a 15- year old and not a six year old.

Naruto started transforming himself as an older person after random people on the street started talking to him, asking whether he was lost. By making himself older he effectively solved that problem. It was also a nice coincidence that, in this case, it deflected questions whether a six- year old was allowed to buy weaponry. He was not actually planning to buy anything, but it was nice that he would at least be able to buy stuff if he wanted to.

"No thanks." Replied Naruto, "I'm just here to look around if that's alright."

"Sure sure. . .Go ahead. Replied the shopkeeper kindly. I'll be in the back area. Give a shout if you need anything."

"thank you", replied Naruto.

Naruto checked what kind wares were sold in the store. He saw a pile of explosive tags and smoke tags, with timer tags, proximity tags and chakra resonating tags that can be used to trigger them. sealing scrolls, storage scrolls. flash bombs, light poison smoke bombs and sticky bombs (pour a bit of chakra into it, throw it at a target and it expels a substance that makes anything stick together and draws its strength from the chakra).

"**This stuff is frikkin' awesome!, buy those explosive thingies, and those smoke tags will be a blast under Iruka- sensei's chair."**

Naruto was amazed by the amount of tools available for a ninja and anxious to test some of the bombs and tags. Although he could probably afford whatever he liked ( he wasn't poor, he knew how to manage his finances), he decided not to because he didn't necessarily need it. He sauntered through the shop and his gaze slid over some more merchandise.

He saw soldier pills, used to boost one's chakra for a short time. Ration bars, food for long missions, ninja generally couldn't afford to carry a mobile kitchen along. And small medicine pouches, not for medic- nin, they'd need a lot more, but for shinobi it helps with the pain from wounds and ointments for healing mild to medium cuts and bruises. Naruto could see that all this stuff was highly useful to have during missions.

Next, he arrived at the weapons section of the shop. He saw a wall with at least twenty different kinds of shuriken. Smaller and larger, thicker and thinner, curved edges or straight edges ( he stared transfixed at a shuriken with cruel- looking hooked ends that would prevent it from being pulled out of the body) and he also saw the impossibly large fuma shuriken, demon wind shuriken and curved fang shuriken. You had to carry them around on your back, but the power behind one of those bad boys made up for that.

He also saw the thin senbon needles, usually used by poison- using ninja, but if you knew where to throw them, could fuck up the nervous system.

Next came the kunai section. Most were standard issue, though some varied in terms of grip length and blade length. there were also samples of each and a target, so that you could test which throwing weapon suited you. Naruto had some fun flinging some of the different sample kunai and shuriken at the target.

Next he arrived at the section with bigger weapons. He saw sickles, scythes, axes, maces, machetes, tanto's, katana's, Bo's, spears, bows and arrows and some other cruel looking weapons he didn't even know the name of.

Naruto stared around in wonder at all the different kinds of weapons a ninja could use. He really never thought about taking a weapon. But seeing all of them stalled out like that had a strong pull on the imagination. Naruto took some of the weapons and gave them an experimental swing. it really was an amazing feeling, knowing you had such a powerful tool of death in your hands.

After testing out most of the different kinds of weapons, Naruto noticed some elaborate looking swords hanging a bit higher. One of the swords particularly caught his eye. It was medium sized, but the blade was covered with scribbles across flat side of the blade. It also had a hand guard on the handle, that was obviously supposed to protect the hand in swordfights. The hand guard gave the sword the look of a cutlass.

Naruto took the sword off the wall and held it in the palms of his hand, even someone who knew nothing of swords could admire the craftsmanship. Naruto felt a strong desire to hold the blade, to grasp it and swing it.

There was something about the sword however, that Naruto failed to notice. Inside the handle of the sword, where the palm the wielder's hand is supposed to wrap itself around the handle, was a small sharp appendage, smaller than a quarter inch, but sharp as a razor.

As Naruto grasped the sword in his right hand, in the way it was made to. Naruto felt a prick in the palm of his hand. a small amount of blood was released from the wound before it could close again.

Suddenly something happened that Naruto could never have foreseen. Naruto felt the handle grow very hot. Before he knew what was going on, it was scorching the palm and back of his hand where the handle was wrapped around it.

Naruto panicked and spread the fingers of his hand to release the grip on the sword to drop the blade, but gravity didn't seem to do its work. His fingers spread fine but the blade refused to drop. 'What the hell is going on!' thought Naruto in complete panic as he felt the handle scorch and scald the palm of his right hand. It was all he could do not to shout out from the pain of it.

The hand guard for some incomprehensible reason started tightening around the back of his hand. sinking itself into his skin. Naruto clenched his teeth to prevent himself shouting out from the pain. All the time swinging his arm wildly, trying to rid himself of the sword that was mutilating his hand. but the sword refused to leave his hand.

Next he experienced what felt like a thousand tiny needles inside his right hand, as if the flesh itself was being pierced from every possible angle. And after a full minute of this agonizing pain it finally stopped.

"**What is going on!" **shouted his inner, as Naruto took deep breaths to calm himself and control the fain and anxiety that had taken over his body. When he finally got his breathing under control (though he was still in a state of panic), Naruto looked down at his right hand and what he saw almost made him shout out.

the blade had sunk partially into his skin at both sides of his hand, like a tight ring around his hand and between his thumb and forefinger. Testing it, he could still move all his fingers and wrist. When he closed his hand, he could feel the metal on his fingertips and see the golden hand guard stretch over the back of his hand. Naruto opened his hand and tried to drop the blade again, but it wouldn't budge.

He tried to remove the blade from his right hand using his left one, but it didn't matter how hard he pulled, the blade wouldn't budge.

'great…..just great….. It seems I've got a sword stuck to my right hand. can I start panicking now.'

"**OH KAMI, WHYYYY, get it off, GET IT OFFFFF "**

~~o~~o~~

DYNAMIC ENTRY!

greeting readers, here's the second chapter of Konoha's edge. I know I should have posted this sooner, two weeks might be a bit long between chapters.

I should mention that I have not yet introduced the bloodline, the I also forgot to mention it will be a bloodline of my own 'invention'.

But the sword is the first dramatic plot twist. . . . . ok dramatic might be a bit of an overstatement but it is an idea I wanted to incorporate in this story. Both literally and figuratively a double edged sword.

I didn't want NaruHina to develop too soon, so I hope I managed to avoid that.

A giant thumbs up and a big thank you to those who reviewed. Reading those reviews makes it all worth it ;)


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